William Lear Quotes
102 William Lear Quotes
1 2 3
I worked as a radio engineer. In those days that was a radio repairman fifty miles from home.
William Lear
[On him building a multiband radio in a simpler way than had been done before and then selling it to RCA for $250,000] I wanted to be in some business that would justify my flying airplanes.
William Lear
The FAA is a scourge on the progress of aviation.
William Lear
[On originally setting up a plant in Switzerland but being frustrated by their refusal to move at the Lear pace and then in early 1963 packing up the entire plant and moving it to Wichita.] We didn’t know what to take, so we took everything.
William Lear
[On launching into production without FAA certification.] With this approach, you’re either very right or very wrong. I was right.
William Lear
Tape playback in automobiles is going to be the next big thing. I’m going to be in the position of a man with a boat full of life jackets following a ship he knows is going to sink. He won’t have any trouble selling them.
William Lear
[On his money coming in and piling up but him not being interested.] H*ll, I can only use one coffin.
William Lear
An executive used to 500 m.p.h. planes like the DC-8s should have a plane of equivalent speed.
William Lear
It is ridiculous for an executive to arrive at the airport in his air-conditioned $5,000 automobile and get into a $500,000 airplane that, until it becomes airborne, has all the comfort of a sauna bath.
William Lear
[On experts saying a bathroom was necessary in the plane.] A restroom is an admission you’re spending too much time getting where you want to go.
William Lear
They said I would never build my plane. Well, I did. They said my plane would never fly. Well, it did. They say we won’t succeed. Well, we will.
William Lear
If I’d done a market survey like they do for known products… The airplane would never have been constructed… Listen to your own counsel.
William Lear
It might take a little longer due to some very unusual winds. The jet stream, which normally moves from west to eat, has reversed itself.
William Lear
Follow me!
William Lear
[In jest presenting Clarence W. Nanney the administrative vice-president of the company.] This is my parole officer.
William Lear
The tea kettle is a very inefficient way to boil a pot of water because of the steam that escapes through the spout. It’s the same way with the old steam car – too much steam got away. If the steam could be captured – if the spout could be turned back into the tea kettle – it obviously wouldn’t be necessary to keep replenishing the water. The steam system could be sealed like the Freon system in your refrigerator. This was the trick. There were enormous problems, but with the help of space-age technology, there was no doubt it could be done. This is what we’re doing in Reno.
William Lear
Don’t tell him everything.
William Lear
[On discussions with a banker called Johnson – ‘You’re not exactly popular with bankers.’] They think I’m a son of a bitch? [‘You are a son of a bitch.’ – Johnson]
William Lear
[To Johnson one evening at six o’clock.] Can you get me $5 million? [‘I’ll try.’ – Johnson] [Next morning at 9:00am to Johnson.] How’re you coming? [‘Look, when you called last night the banks were closed. They’re still not open this morning.’ - Johnson
William Lear
Mom, I’m going to tell them to go to h*ll. [Hours later] Mom, I want you to meet your new partner.
William Lear
If you’re thinking of taking away even $1000 from my proposal, forget it – the deal’s off. Now get on the ball! [Minutes later, Gates bought the company for substantially more than Lear had asked.]
William Lear
But if we get something going up there I can commute back and forth. After all, that’s what we have the Lear Jet for. We can go on living here in Beverly Hills. [Any woman who thinks she can live in one place when here husband has to work in another might as well forget her marriage.’ – Moya Lear]
William Lear
You’ll remember this occasion, when you have to go through three secretaries to get in.
William Lear
Any airplane is good when you don’t have one of your own.
William Lear
The pollution problem is very serious, and I feel our basic dedication is toward its solution. We are of course interested in making a buck, but not without, at the same time, making a contribution toward solving this problem. We so far have spent $4.5 million.
William Lear
Now every man in this room, has to take the position that he is sixty-eight years old, has earned a certain amount of money in his life, and so far has spent, let’s say, half of it. Now he faces the decision whether to go on and spend the other half. You are not acting as the Board of Directors, each with the same interest financially in the company as I have. And, of course, I have had the good fortune to make many people rich from riding along with me. So there is a good chance that if we do the right thing we can be quite well off. The basic decision I’m going to ask you to make today, is, which way we should go.
William Lear
I have felt for a long time that our destiny so far as the automobile industry is concerned is tied first of all to having the satisfactory device. That means an engine that can compete in price, size, and efficiency with what they already have.
William Lear
[To making an engine cheaply called for tooling that would cost $300 million on average to tool a new automobile engine.] Now if there’s one thing we don’t have right now it’s $300 million.
William Lear
I’m sure of one thing: We’ve got to treat anything we make from here on out as something that’s going to operate in space. The quality of the service available today in the automotive field is so bad you almost hesitate to take your car in. Any device we put on the market has to run continuously without service.
William Lear
The first requisite of reliability was simplicity, and this was something the steam car did not have. It involves a much greater number of systems than the internal combustion engine or the gas turbine.
William Lear
If we use organic fluids we must have a completely enclosed system, because we don’t want to spew organic fluids into the atmosphere.
William Lear
We know that if we get the temperature above 800 degrees, it automatically ignites from the heat. We know that certain combinations of air and fluids at certain temperatures will burn. Now, whether this band of combinations that burn is wide or narrow makes very little difference when you have someone like Mr [Ralph] Nader to look out after you. [Mr Ralph Nader – the safety crusader.]
William Lear
[On Ralph Nader – the safety crusader] Along comes a stream car and he looks at it and says, ‘Aah, they’ve got not one thing that can burn but they’ve got two things to burn: the fuel and also the fluid!’ And his position, I think, would be well taken and certainly it would be difficult to offset. You could present all the curves you wanted to about how you have to have special conditions. I don’t think it would prevail over his argument that two are more than one.
William Lear
[On the philosophy of a banker he once worked with.] He said ‘Bill, if I think I can get through that stone wall, I don’t care how bruised and bloody my head becomes, I’ll try; but if I’m convinced that I can’t get through that stone wall, I wouldn’t harm a hair on my head.’ I think this is the position we must take today. Can we get through that stone wall?
William Lear
[On objecting to the idea of having anybody look over their shoulders.] If that’s the way it’s going to be they can take their contract and shove it! Four hundred and fifty thousand dollars overhead on a $600,000 contract! I can that getting in the way. We’ve lost six months just waiting for that goddamned contract to come back.
William Lear
That does it! Forget the whole thing!
William Lear
Can you build an organic turbine? If you can, I’ll give you a contract. [‘Of course! That’s how we make our living. Can a blacksmith shoe horses?’ - Barber]
William Lear
[On the IRS placing a lien against his property in September 1970 for $779,724 in back taxes.] It’s harassment. It takes you years to earn it but they want it immediately.
William Lear
[In October 1970 on him having made a working prototype but needing assistance on the production side.] I would like to take this opportunity to suggest that General Motors and Lear Motors join forces to work closer together on a development program for a low emission steam system for the automobile. I am convinced that making a low emission steam powered prototype that will meet 1990 HEW standards is now feasible, but the problem of production requires our joint participation.
William Lear
A low emission steam program in which General Motors is participating would obviously be one where the benefits could more quickly be made available to the general public.
William Lear
1 2 3
Return from William Lear Quotes to
Quoteswise.com